Gunning for first NASCAR Sprint Cup win of the year in the Coca-Cola 600: Brad Keselowski's Autoweek blog

Defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski is still seeking his first win of the season.

Who's ready for what is always the year's biggest weekend of racing? I'm certainly going to be paying attention.

Looking back on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All Star race at Charlotte last weekend, it's really difficult for me to give an opinion on the All-Star Race format because I only ran two laps. I don't know what would make a good format for the fans, but for me, I would just like to see us drop the flag and race. You're always going to run into a situation where a team may hit the setup perfectly and they will just run away and hide from everyone else. That's not necessarily what you want from an event created for the fans. On the flipside though, you don't want to over-think it and get into a situation where you confuse everyone.

The last few weeks in general have been a bit frustrating for everyone on the Penske Racing Miller Lite Ford team. We still have speed. I think everyone knows that Paul [Wolfe] builds very fast race cars. We just need to execute better and have things go our way. Darlington was really a bummer. I feel like I drove one of the best races of my career. I kept the car off the wall and at times we were just flying. But when you have a loose wheel that knocks you back two laps, then get into a wreck that happens right in front of you, there is not much you can do and you end up with a 32nd-place finish.

This weekend of course means that the Indianapolis 500 is running. You know, with NASCAR drivers Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart hinting at wanting to one day do the Indy 500, I can throw my name into that mix. Absolutely, it's on my radar and I've made that known to Roger Penske. There is still a lot we want to do with our NASCAR program, more goals that we want to achieve, before we even think about anything along those lines, but it is a bucket list item for sure.

All of the NASCAR drivers follow Indy and the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix as well. We'll all be watching Monaco and Indy while getting ready for the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night. I've yet to go to my first IndyCar or F1 race, but I will get to one soon enough. I almost tried to make it to the Canadian Grand Prix a couple of years ago because we race in New Hampshire that same weekend, but the schedule just didn't match up for it to be worthwhile. But I definitely watch all forms of motorsports: IndyCar, Australian V8 Supercars, Grand-Am, the American Le Mans Series … you never know where you might learn something.

Back to my own racing: For the Coca-Cola 600, you definitely feel the extra 100 miles. It's almost as if the first 500 miles are just a warm up. You don't want to dial yourself out during the first part of the race because the track changes so much from day to night. You just want to make sure you stay out of trouble for the first half of the race so that you have a car you can run with when it matters. Driving 600 miles is very demanding on your body so you have to prepare for that. You can lose as much as 10 pounds of water during the race because it can be 120 degrees inside the car, so you need to hydrate.

Heading into Charlotte, we're seventh in points, which obviously took a hit thanks to the penalties. We don't have a win yet this year, but that's still the goal every time out. I don't think we ever go out just to race for points. We go out to get the best possible finish that the Miller Lite Ford can get on each weekend. Of course, we strive to get the maximum points possible for the car we have each weekend. If that's a win, great. If we continue to get the best finish possible then the points -- and making the Chase for the Championship -- will take care of themselves.

I really feel like we are on the doorstep of hitting a major stride and, hopefully, rattling off a few wins. We've been fast, and when you have speed you have the No. 1 building block for success. I would love for us to breakthrough this weekend at Charlotte. If it doesn't happen there, we have Dover and Pocono coming up where we know we can run well.

Editor's note: Autoweek Editor at Speed and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, 29, drives the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion for Penske Racing. Keselowski debuted in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2008 and scored his first Cup victory in 2009 at Talladega Superspeedway. The Rochester Hills, Mich., native joined Penske Racing in 2010 and helped legendary team owner Roger Penske claim his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title in 2012. Keselowski was the 2010 Nationwide Series champion, and he was named Most Popular Driver in the Nationwide Series in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Keselowski got his NASCAR start in the Camping World Truck Series at the age of 20 and is a member of a racing family. His father, Bob, raced in the Truck Series, and brother Brian has logged more than 60 starts in the Nationwide Series. Follow him all season long here on autoweek.com, and on Twitter @keselowski.